On April 24, Zenit published an
interview on the
topic in Tijuana, Mexico. Below are
excerpts.

The secular press recently was full of articles on how Mother
Teresa had a "crisis" of faith for decades, but the untold story is how Mary sustained Mother Teresa during that time.

For insight, ZENIT turned to Missionary of Charity Father Joseph
Langford, cofounder with Mother Teresa of her community of priests, the
Missionaries of Charity Fathers, and author of Mother Teresa: In the Shadow of Our Lady, published by Our Sunday Visitor.

Father Langford told ZENIT how Mother Teresa clung to Our Lady
throughout her dark night, and how we can grow closer to Mary by following Mother Teresa's example.

Q: What made you decide that now would be a good time to tell this part of Mother's story?

Father Langford: The decision to publish In the Shadow of Our Lady and to reveal more of Mother Teresa's inner life
grew out of the convergence of two events: the tenth anniversary of her passing, and the recent controversy over her "dark
night" of soul.

Given the confusion being created around Mother Teresa and her
legacy, it seemed important to reveal another dimension of the true light and
beauty of God's work in her soul--a light that shone all the more brightly through her heroic faith.
...

Francesca Franchina, MS. Ed., a long-time member of the Marianist Family, will be doing a series of Marian broadcasts through
the local station for Radio Maria WHJM
(FM 88.7) in Anna, Ohio. Called "Francesca and Friends: Why Mary?", the program airs every Wednesday from 11:30
AM-12:30 PM EST focusing on what is going on in the world about Mary, how to speak with others about Mary, and Mary in Scripture.

On Wednesday, April 30, 2008, Francesca Franchina continues her discussion with Jack Davis focusing on activities of Our Lady and
Our Lord Jesus Christ after His Resurrection, preparing for the Ascension as dictated by the Blessed Virgin Mary and written by Mary of
Agreda in City of God: The Divine History and Life of The Virgin Mother of God; translated
from the original Spanish by Fiscar Marison (aka Rev. Geo J. Blatter). This is part
of a continuing series on the four volumes of City of God.

The broadcast may also be heard on-line at radiomaria.us [Click
on the BVMary photo ... Scroll down to RADIO MARIA USA (English) ... Click on
the windows icon or whichever media program you have on your PC.]. The
web site also provides access to some previous broadcasts. We'll keep you
informed about future programs. An encore of each show is broadcast Monday
night from 8:30-9:30 pm EST one week after the original.

Her series, Through the Tummy to the Heart, airs every Tuesday except the first Tuesday
from 5:00-5:45 PM on RADIO MARIA WHJM and also online. The series encores Saturdays from 3:00-3:45 pm. Tune in 88.7 FM
(WHJM) in the northern Archdiocese of Cincinnati and on line at
www.radiomaria.us
from anywhere in the world. Send email to Francesca with questions, comments,
suggestions at fran@866333mary.com.
Send email while the programs are going on if you cannot get through or if you
are listening outside of the USA. CALL IN TOLL FREE; PARTICIPATE IN THE PROGRAM (during the live show); 1-866-333-6279.

On Tuesday, April 29, 2008, Francesca discusses May, Mary's Designated Month; The First Novena: Holy Spirit Prayer; The
National Novena to the Holy Spirit in preparation for Pentecost, and the New Pentecost. Recipes today from Francesca's Kitchen:
Italian Style Shrimp and Rice Ragout and Italian Olive Salad.

Dr. Virginia M. Kimball, vice president of the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and IMRI
graduate, will be the speaker at the next meeting of the Society at St. Luke’s
Roman Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia [suburb of Washington, D.C.] on May 10
at 10 am. Dr. Kimball will speak on “Mary, the Mother of Christ: How can
today’s young adults relate to Mary’s motherhood?” As a professor of Mariology
for over ten years and as the mother of nine children, six of them now young
women with careers and family, she speaks from experience in considering this
question. Dr. Kimball will address the problem of radical feminism, today’s
secular world and its impact on women’s lives, economic pressures that make it
hard for today’s young adults and young married couples to realize the vocation
of Christian family and parenthood. She will probe how contemporary viewpoints
influence young women in their understanding of the motherhood of Mary and their
own call to motherhood. What can people who love Mary say to these young
adults? How do we explain Mary to this contemporary Christian world? How does Mary give them hope?

ESBVM is open to all who are interested to attend. The ESBVM-UK has just published a new
collection of ecumenical papers on the Virgin Mary, entitled Mary for Time and Eternity, published by Gracewing Publishers in
England. Dr. Kimball contributed to this collection with a paper entitled "The Immaculate Conception
in the Ecumenical Dialogue with Orthodoxy: how the term theosis can
inform convergence." Dr. Kimball is an adjunct professor of Theology at
Assumption College in Worcester, MA. Also, she is a past president of the Mariological Society of America.

In a spring 2007 survey of Catholic adults made by LeMoyne College/Zogby, many
U.S. Catholics said they frequently participate in devotions honoring the
Blessed Virgin Mary. The survey yielded the following results about the
frequency of engaging in popular Marian devotions.

The Marian Library gallery will show the mixed media works of the Jim and
Celeste Lauritsen from April until June 27, 2008. From their Tree of Life
Studios, the couple works as artists, educators, and craft professionals,
drawing upon their faith for inspiration. Jim works in stone and wood,
while Celeste uses the softer medium of fabric to convey life's journey.
Click here for
virtual exhibit.

In order to make our web site more accessible, The Mary Page may now be
reached at the following URLs: lapagedemarie.org; lapaginademaria.org; marypage.org; themarypage.org;
marypage.udayton.edu; campus.udayton.edu/mary; and themarypage.net. The original address on the University of Dayton site,
www.udayton.edu/mary, remains active as well.

Two important Catholic websites have added The Mary Page to their list of Media Partners.
CatholicWeb.com highlights
items from The Mary Page in their section on Catholic News.
Catholic.net includes a Mary
Channel on their navbar with articles from The Mary Page. Please visit these sites in
return. We expect continued collaboration with them in the future.

Radio Maria broadcasts
from Milan Italy, heard in forty-nine countries; WHJM
broadcasts out of Louisiana across USA, including FM 88.7, an affiliate station
in Anna, Ohio (north of Dayton) which airs regular Marian talks from UD's Marian Library every Wednesday at 11:30 am EST.

Made public today was a Letter from the Pope addressed to Cardinal
Andre Vingt-Trois, archbishop of Paris, France, to mark the hundredth
anniversary of an annual pilgrimage by young people from the province of Paris.
This year's pilgrimage, which took them to Lourdes, was held from April 22 to 27.

In his Letter to the cardinal, who is also president of the
Conference of Bishops of France, the Holy Father mentions the fact that 2008
marks the 150th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in the grotto of Massabielle.

Benedict XVI calls on young people to imitate Mary's response when
she was "invited to follow an amazing yet disconcerting journey. Her readiness
led her to experience a joy of which all previous generations had sung," he writes.

"Our 'yes' to God", the Pope continues, "makes the font of true happiness gush
forth. It frees the 'I' from everything that closes it in on itself. It brings
the poverty of our lives into the richness and power of God's plan, without
restricting our freedom and our responsibility. ... It conforms our lives to Christ's own life."

The Holy Father then encourages the young "enthusiastically to
celebrate the joy of loving Christ and of believing and hoping in Him, and
trustingly to follow the path of initiation you have before you. I particularly
invite you," he writes, "to take up the witness of your ancestors in the
faith, and to learn to welcome the Word of God--in silence and meditation--so
that it can mould your hearts and produce generous fruits in you."

This pilgrimage, Pope Benedict concludes, "is also a good time to allow
yourselves to be asked by Christ: 'What do you want to do with your lives?' May
those among you who feel the call to follow Him in the priesthood or in
consecrated life--as have so many young participants in these pilgrimages--reply
to the Lord's call and put yourselves totally at the service of the Church, with
a life completely dedicated to the Kingdom of heaven. You will never be disappointed."

Benedict XVI gave his support to an initiative from the
Congregation for Clergy that called for spiritual mothers for priests and Eucharistic adoration for their sanctity.

The Pope, who repeatedly stressed the need for holy priests during
his trip to the United States last week, expressed his approval of this project promoted by the Vatican's clergy dicastery.

In a letter sent to the congregation through the Holy Father's
secretary of state, the Pope expressed his "personal satisfaction to the
Congregation of the Clergy for the initiative [...] titled 'Eucharistic Adoration
for the Sanctification of Priests and Spiritual Maternity,' which is currently spreading throughout the world."

The note further assured that the Pontiff is "grateful for the
thoughtful action and the sentiments that the congregation has suggested, and
hopeful that the love and devotion to the Eucharistic Lord and devotion to Mary,
Mother of Christ the High Priest, might give new fervor to the life and the apostolate of priests."

Benedict XVI imparted his apostolic blessing "as a seal of that hope," the congregation reported.

The initiative was announced last Dec. 8 by the prefect and secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Cláudio Hummes and
Mauro Piacenza, respectively.

It called for people willing to begin and maintain twenty-four-hour
Eucharistic adoration for the priesthood and for "consecrated feminine souls" ready to become spiritual mothers of priests.

The Web site from the dicastery offers explanations and resources both for
the campaign to begin Eucharistic adoration and for those who would like to be
spiritual mothers of priests, following the example of the Virgin Mary.

The director and editors of The Mary Page under the auspices of the
International Marian Research Institute do not necessarily endorse or agree with
the events and ideas expressed in this feature. Our sole purpose is to report on
items about Mary gleaned from a myriad of papers representing the secular press.

Doctor Margaret Pasakas placed her stethoscope on the heart of
the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Joseph Hospital in
Allentown, Pennsylvania. To her utter astonishment she heard a human heartbeat
and knelt down in tearful veneration. The Missionary Image is
a full-size 4’x6’ digital copy of the original Miraculous Image that the Virgin
Mary left on Saint Juan Diego’s cloak in Mexico on December 12, 1531. It was
displayed for veneration during a Visitation to the hospital's chapel. The Image
has journeyed on Visitations throughout the world and in each state of the
United States in over one thousand parishes. It has received the veneration of
hundreds of thousands. Many signs, wonders, conversions, healings,
reconciliations and graces have been reported. Mary's heartbeat is a sign of her
love for us, her spiritual children. During the Visitation to Reading over two-hundred
venerators felt the heartbeat of an unborn child in the pregnant womb of the
Virgin Mary in the image. Many others throughout the United States have felt
this sign. It is a sign that life begins at conception and is not a "choice" for
the mother because God, the Author of Life, has already chosen the child for
life. Other signs manifested by God through the Missionary Image are tears of
oil from Mary's eyes, three-dimensional pregnancy, the opening of her eyes and
the aroma of roses. During the Reading Visitation, the Image also visited
churches, a nursing home, and a school and was processed through the city streets to an abortion center.

You are invited to help us pray for our Prayer Corner
intentions. Please take a look! This site has been updated and enhanced
and now allows users to directly submit prayer requests or to volunteer as a prayer partner for these intentions!

The Mary Page offers a variety of resources inviting study, reflection and
meditation. We also list important Marian dates for each month of the
year. Please see Marian Commemoration Days for the month of
May.

This page, maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute,
Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, and created by
Kris Sommers
, was last modified
Friday, 05/02/2008 15:08:54 EDT
by
Michael P. Duricy
. Please send any comments to jroten1@udayton.edu.